Stevenson slogs out a victory
The scoreboard may not have suggested a defensive struggle, but looks are often deceiving.
Stevenson got past Warren 33-20 on a rainy Friday in Lincolnshire. The contest included turnovers, short fields and one long fumble return. The Patriots generated enough offense late in the game to improve to 3-0 on the season by winning their North Suburban Lake opener.
Warren led 10-7 at halftime, but Stevenson turned the tables by scoring touchdowns on its first two possessions of the third quarter.
"We were a little out of sync early," Stevenson coach Bill McNamara said. "We talked at halftime, when you're playing a good defensive football team, you've gto to be sharp. We were a step slow and we made some misreads and we just weren't making the plays. In the second half, we talked about getting the ball to our playmakers and getting them in the open field."
Some of those Stevenson offensive weapons put up some good numbers, thanks in large part to a couple late drives. Quarterback Willie Bourbon completed 14 of 31 passes for 199 yards and 2 interceptions. Jack Joseph ran for 132 yards on 13 carries, including consecutive 27-yard runs that put the game out of reach.
Northwestern-bound receiver Cameron Green had 3 catches for 58 yards, while junior Jack Sorenson was impressive, grabbing 5 receptions for 90 yards.
"We try to keep good balance. We've got a lot of athletes on offense," McNamara said. "Cam Green, he's the big name on our offense along with Will. But we've got Jack Sorenson, we've got Jack Joseph in the backfield, Tyler Vincent running the ball, Jordan Atkins, Henry Marchese - those guys are football players. We try to make defenses cover all our guys."
Warren's 5-8 junior, Darrius Crump, didn't always have much room to run, but managed to gain 89 yards on 27 attempts. The Blue Devils (1-2, 0-1) didn't have a good day throwing the ball. Senior quarterback Jay Nickell went 7 of 30 for 95 yards on 3 interceptions, but he also made some good throws that fell out of his receivers' hands.
Warren took the 10-7 lead late in the second quarter after Mitchell Elle recovered a fumble on the Stevenson 3-yard line.
The Patriots controlled the third quarter, though, moving 57 yards on six plays on the opening drive. Vincent's 6-yard run put Stevenson ahead 14-10. A Jimmy Marchese interception two plays later set up a 1-yard run by Bourbon to make it 20-10.
The Blue Devils stuck around, with Brandon Hergenreder blasting a 40-yard field goal to make it a one-score game. Warren got the ball trailing 20-13, but a bobbled punt snap led to a costly 13-yard loss on fourth down. The miscue set up a Stevenson 25-yard scoring drive.
"I was really proud of the way the kids played," said first-year Warren coach Bryan McNulty. "We had two goals: We wanted to hit and we wanted to compete and play hard, and we figured the scoreboard would take care of itself. You're playing Stevenson at Stevenson, you can't turn the ball over and you can't have special teams mistakes like we did."
Joseph's 27-yard run made it 33-13 with 4:57 left. Warren's defense struck again on a 70-yard fumble return by Jerry Chavis off a muffed snap.